I made it back from the desert trip without any major problems. The camper was a blessing to have vs camping on the ground. I do know there are things I need to fix though.
Dust ingestion. This was the biggest issue we had as far as the camper was concerned. We did near 250 miles on dirt during the trip. Most of that had fine silty dirt with the consistency of flour. The back of any SUV is a nice low pressure zone that has a natural ability to suck dust in as long as you are moving. Since the FWC Blazer camper has no floor connected to the back wall the only seal you have is what you put on the body for the back wall to seal to when the camper is installed. I had put the same camper tape on the body as I did on the tops of the bedsides when we installed the camper. It was not tight. We had all our gear covered in dust by the third day on the trail. It's not a dealbreaker by any chance but an area that needs the most improvement.
Ian's fridge while great for food preservation was absolutely huge to work around. It blocked access to the front cabinet as I could only open the door about 5" before the door hit the fridge. When I get a fridge it will be smaller and I'll fit it in differently.
The propane door also proved to be problematic. I had added a strap to hold the propane cylinder in the compartment. However, I had it high enough to go around the handle and it caused it to kick the bottom out towards the door when cinched up tight. More than a few times the door popped open on washboard roads. It wasn't until Ian noticed the tab that the latch catches was folded over allowing the latch to slide over it and open without too much effort. He bent it into place and it didn't open again.
My fear about fuel economy dropping was justified, but as I found on the first road day, driving to maximize fuel mileage was not helping. It had me going too slow on grades to the point of needing to pull the shifter down to 2nd for long pulls near the top of some hills. Granted keeping up with Larry's 8.1 powered K10 is a daunting task when he's pulling the same hills and not pulling out of 5th in his truck at 80mph. I found the sweet spot. The engine was happiest pulling 2000 rpm down the highway. That's 75 mph with my gearing. It kept the engine in the torque curve and a tiptoe into the throttle would cause the 700r4 to kick down to 3rd and start pulling 3,000rpm. I could maintain speed rather than slowing down. As I found driving this way on the highway had no huge impact on mileage over putting around at no more than 65mph like I had measured before. It's not as good as it was with no camper at all, but my overall trip mileage just under 12mpg (highway/offroad) is not all bad when you consider what it is. Plus comparing to Larry's big K10 having the 8.1 and weighing in a full 2,000 pounds heavier than mine typically pulls a similar mileage figure for these trips.
Here's some pics from the trip. (full trip report to come later once all the participants cough up thier pics too)
Lunch stop..
IMG_20180602_122838010_HDR by Rob Zulian, on Flickr
At the AZ state line, just south of the 4 corners monument.
IMG_20180602_135052111 by Rob Zulian, on Flickr
At the beginning of the Mojave Road, on the banks of the Colorado River.
IMG_20180603_095338226 by Rob Zulian, on Flickr
Not yet into CA on the Mojave. Desert at last!
IMGP0016 by Rob Zulian, on Flickr
At Ft. Piute for a lunch stop.
IMG_20180603_131637421 by Rob Zulian, on Flickr
Camp spot near the Piute corrals.
IMGP0043 by Rob Zulian, on Flickr
Made to the Mojave Mailbox.
IMGP0090 by Rob Zulian, on Flickr
Night 2 on the Mojave. We are north of the Lava Tubes and off the Mojave Road at this point.
IMG_20180604_195109723_HDR by Rob Zulian, on Flickr
From that campsite, we decided to alter our plans to hit Death Valley. We had been battling opressive heat everyday. We knew this going in and I had seen 113 the day before. But we know DV would be even hotter. The group decided to head for higher elevations and lower temps. We would hit I-15 and make our way to the Arizona strip and the north rim of the Grand Canyon. We also had one of our group from CA split back for home due to time constraints when we hit the interstate. We had no idea what would happen a mere 10 minutes up the highway for us.
IMG_20180605_102626054 by Rob Zulian, on Flickr
What you see above is what's left of a 7-series BMW. This wreck unfolded directly in front of my truck at highway speeds. As being the quick draw in pinpointing the exact closest In-N-Out Burger in Las Vegas I was instructed to lead the group to the promised land of burgers. I-15 starts a hard pull up right from the exit where we aired up and got fuel. So I had to wind the K5 up tight to attack the hil and not loose speed. Nearly cresting the hill in the center lane, I noticed this white flash going by me on the left at a high rate of speed. As quick as I saw this, the car made an immediate right turn directly in front of me. I was still pulling 70-75 at this point. Fearing I was going to drill this car in the passenger side doors I backed out of the throttle and started applying the brakes. The BMW's momentum was so much it kept going past us to the right in a full blown tokyo drift. It ended up completing a 180 and sliding backwards into the rock wall on the right shoulder. It was at this point the car launched into the air and flipped onto it's roof. Again, still carrying a lot of momentum the car began sliding on it's roof back towards us in my K5. I managed to pull over to the left shoulder and get the truck stopped at the exact same point that the BMW stopped. Ian and I both hopped out to check on the driver of the BMW. Thankfully the rest of the traffic stopped too. Ian and I are first to the car and we could hear a woman's voice screaming from the car stating her seatbelt is stuck. I laid down on the road and reached in to help, but she was not within my reach to cut her belt. All I could do was hand her my pocket knife so she could cut herself free. At that point Ian and I helped her out and to the side of the road. One of our group is an RN and took over keeping her calm and body still until the EMT's could get there. Long story short, she was driving like a maniac passing cars on the right and left. She had one of her cheap chinese 22" tires blow out as she passed me and set the whole chain of events in motion all the while facetiming her boyfriend on her phone. She came out with minor injuries. I needed to change my shorts. Larry swears I pulled to the left hard enough to have my truck leaning right hard and having the left side tires almost off the ground. Before that all he saw was the cloud of dust from the car's impact to the wall and all he could think was that it was his friends who just flipped on the highway and that the cloud was from us. I don't know how I hauled my heavy truck in without flipping it, but I did. We survived, helped an idiot that tried to kill us so I felt justified to have a chocolate shake with my Double Double at In-n-Out.
Tomorrow, the AZ strip, Lake Powell and the ride home.
Dust ingestion. This was the biggest issue we had as far as the camper was concerned. We did near 250 miles on dirt during the trip. Most of that had fine silty dirt with the consistency of flour. The back of any SUV is a nice low pressure zone that has a natural ability to suck dust in as long as you are moving. Since the FWC Blazer camper has no floor connected to the back wall the only seal you have is what you put on the body for the back wall to seal to when the camper is installed. I had put the same camper tape on the body as I did on the tops of the bedsides when we installed the camper. It was not tight. We had all our gear covered in dust by the third day on the trail. It's not a dealbreaker by any chance but an area that needs the most improvement.
Ian's fridge while great for food preservation was absolutely huge to work around. It blocked access to the front cabinet as I could only open the door about 5" before the door hit the fridge. When I get a fridge it will be smaller and I'll fit it in differently.
The propane door also proved to be problematic. I had added a strap to hold the propane cylinder in the compartment. However, I had it high enough to go around the handle and it caused it to kick the bottom out towards the door when cinched up tight. More than a few times the door popped open on washboard roads. It wasn't until Ian noticed the tab that the latch catches was folded over allowing the latch to slide over it and open without too much effort. He bent it into place and it didn't open again.
My fear about fuel economy dropping was justified, but as I found on the first road day, driving to maximize fuel mileage was not helping. It had me going too slow on grades to the point of needing to pull the shifter down to 2nd for long pulls near the top of some hills. Granted keeping up with Larry's 8.1 powered K10 is a daunting task when he's pulling the same hills and not pulling out of 5th in his truck at 80mph. I found the sweet spot. The engine was happiest pulling 2000 rpm down the highway. That's 75 mph with my gearing. It kept the engine in the torque curve and a tiptoe into the throttle would cause the 700r4 to kick down to 3rd and start pulling 3,000rpm. I could maintain speed rather than slowing down. As I found driving this way on the highway had no huge impact on mileage over putting around at no more than 65mph like I had measured before. It's not as good as it was with no camper at all, but my overall trip mileage just under 12mpg (highway/offroad) is not all bad when you consider what it is. Plus comparing to Larry's big K10 having the 8.1 and weighing in a full 2,000 pounds heavier than mine typically pulls a similar mileage figure for these trips.
Here's some pics from the trip. (full trip report to come later once all the participants cough up thier pics too)
Lunch stop..
IMG_20180602_122838010_HDR by Rob Zulian, on FlickrAt the AZ state line, just south of the 4 corners monument.
IMG_20180602_135052111 by Rob Zulian, on FlickrAt the beginning of the Mojave Road, on the banks of the Colorado River.
IMG_20180603_095338226 by Rob Zulian, on FlickrNot yet into CA on the Mojave. Desert at last!
IMGP0016 by Rob Zulian, on FlickrAt Ft. Piute for a lunch stop.
IMG_20180603_131637421 by Rob Zulian, on FlickrCamp spot near the Piute corrals.
IMGP0043 by Rob Zulian, on FlickrMade to the Mojave Mailbox.
IMGP0090 by Rob Zulian, on FlickrNight 2 on the Mojave. We are north of the Lava Tubes and off the Mojave Road at this point.
IMG_20180604_195109723_HDR by Rob Zulian, on FlickrFrom that campsite, we decided to alter our plans to hit Death Valley. We had been battling opressive heat everyday. We knew this going in and I had seen 113 the day before. But we know DV would be even hotter. The group decided to head for higher elevations and lower temps. We would hit I-15 and make our way to the Arizona strip and the north rim of the Grand Canyon. We also had one of our group from CA split back for home due to time constraints when we hit the interstate. We had no idea what would happen a mere 10 minutes up the highway for us.
IMG_20180605_102626054 by Rob Zulian, on FlickrWhat you see above is what's left of a 7-series BMW. This wreck unfolded directly in front of my truck at highway speeds. As being the quick draw in pinpointing the exact closest In-N-Out Burger in Las Vegas I was instructed to lead the group to the promised land of burgers. I-15 starts a hard pull up right from the exit where we aired up and got fuel. So I had to wind the K5 up tight to attack the hil and not loose speed. Nearly cresting the hill in the center lane, I noticed this white flash going by me on the left at a high rate of speed. As quick as I saw this, the car made an immediate right turn directly in front of me. I was still pulling 70-75 at this point. Fearing I was going to drill this car in the passenger side doors I backed out of the throttle and started applying the brakes. The BMW's momentum was so much it kept going past us to the right in a full blown tokyo drift. It ended up completing a 180 and sliding backwards into the rock wall on the right shoulder. It was at this point the car launched into the air and flipped onto it's roof. Again, still carrying a lot of momentum the car began sliding on it's roof back towards us in my K5. I managed to pull over to the left shoulder and get the truck stopped at the exact same point that the BMW stopped. Ian and I both hopped out to check on the driver of the BMW. Thankfully the rest of the traffic stopped too. Ian and I are first to the car and we could hear a woman's voice screaming from the car stating her seatbelt is stuck. I laid down on the road and reached in to help, but she was not within my reach to cut her belt. All I could do was hand her my pocket knife so she could cut herself free. At that point Ian and I helped her out and to the side of the road. One of our group is an RN and took over keeping her calm and body still until the EMT's could get there. Long story short, she was driving like a maniac passing cars on the right and left. She had one of her cheap chinese 22" tires blow out as she passed me and set the whole chain of events in motion all the while facetiming her boyfriend on her phone. She came out with minor injuries. I needed to change my shorts. Larry swears I pulled to the left hard enough to have my truck leaning right hard and having the left side tires almost off the ground. Before that all he saw was the cloud of dust from the car's impact to the wall and all he could think was that it was his friends who just flipped on the highway and that the cloud was from us. I don't know how I hauled my heavy truck in without flipping it, but I did. We survived, helped an idiot that tried to kill us so I felt justified to have a chocolate shake with my Double Double at In-n-Out.
Tomorrow, the AZ strip, Lake Powell and the ride home.
